LinkedIn names Akshay Kothari as India Country Manager

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GizBot Bureau

Written By: GizBot Bureau

Published: Wednesday, January 6, 2016, 16:29 [IST]

Professional networking platform LinkedIn today appointed Akshay Kothari as Country Manager for India, with immediate effect. India has one of the largest userbase for LinkedIn, which has more than 400 million members globally.

Kothari replaces Nishant Rao, who quit the company in October last year to join cloud-based customer support software firm Freshdesk as its Chief Operating Officer.

Kothari will report to Olivier Legrand, LinkedIns Managing Director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, and join the company's APAC senior management team, LinkedIn said in a statement. He joined LinkedIn in 2013 when Pulse, the company he co-founded and was CEO for almost 3 years, was acquired by LinkedIn.

Since then, based out of LinkedIn's global headquarters in Mountain View, California, he has led several major product and content initiatives, including Pulse. Kothari also played an important role in boosting the number of members publishing on LinkedIn from 1,000 to nearly 2 million in the last two years.

"This new role also brings me back 'full-circle' to India, a high-growth market where there are opportunities abound to create even more value for our members and clients. Ultimately, my dream for LinkedIn is to play an even more significant role in helping to transform professionals and businesses in India, and showcase their success to the rest of the world," Kothari said.

India has the second largest base of LinkedIn members globally, after the US. Over the past six years, the member base in India saw a ten-fold increase (which translates to a compound annual growth rate of 46 per cent) to more than 33 million. "India continues to be a strategic market for LinkedIn. While we have come a long way over the past six years in the country, we still have a long runway of opportunities," Legrand said.